AP College Basketball Poll 2022: Complete Week 16 Rankings Released
For the second straight week, Gonzaga remains the top team in men's college basketball.
The Bulldogs earned all 61 first-place votes by the Associated Press to stay ahead of Arizona and third-ranked Auburn, with Purdue and Kansas rounding out the top five.
Week 16 Men's CBB Associated Press Rankings
1. Gonzaga
2. Arizona
3. Auburn
4. Purdue
5. Kansas
6. Kentucky
7. Duke
8. Villanova
9. Texas Tech
10. Baylor
11. Providence
12. UCLA
13. Wisconsin
14. Houston
15. Illinois
16. USC
17. Tennessee
18. Arkansas
19. Murray State
20. Texas
21. Connecticut
22. Ohio State
23. Saint Mary's
24. Alabama
25. Iowa
Road losses by Auburn (Florida) and Kentucky (Tennessee) created the biggest ripple at the top of the poll this week. Tyree Appleby scored 26 points and Colin Castleton added 19 points and eight rebounds to lead Florida to a 63-62 win over Auburn, giving Bruce Pearl's team its second loss in as many weeks.
"We just didn’t play well enough to win tonight," Pearl told reporters. "Give Florida some credit. They made some really big shots at the end. Our kids really battled, and I thought we played hard defensively, but we struggled on the offensive end."
Tennessee turned in a dominant performance on its homecourt, with four players scoring in double figures to lead the Vols to a 76-63 win over Kentucky. Santiago Vescovi scored a team-high 18 points, and the Vols defense locked in to hold the Wildcats to 34.3 percent shooting.
"[Tennessee] needed it more; they wanted it more," Kentucky coach John Calipari told reporters. "They banged us around. You've gotta own your performance. Can't let anybody alibi. We got manhandled. It was a revenge game."
While the SEC upsets created the biggest change in the poll, college basketball's biggest story of the past seven days took place during the postgame melee between Michigan and Wisconsin. The fight broke out when words were exchanged between Michigan coach Juwan Howard and Wisconsin coach Greg Gard after the Badgers' 77-63 win.
Howard hit Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft, who got between the two coaches, in the face, and several players were seen throwing punches as chaos broke out on the floor. The incident is under review by the Big Ten, and swift punishments are expected.
Michigan is a bubble tournament team that could be playing without its coach and forwards Moussa Diabate and Terrance Williams during a critical stretch run, while Gard and guard Jahcobi Neath may be suspended as the Badgers are playing for tournament seeding.
